The Celtic Fairies
Part 11
A long, long time ago when the earth was still pretty new there was an Island which was so densely covered with trees that a squirrel could climb up a tree at one end of it and get all the way to the other end, without putting his foot on the ground.
And in that time, because this island had so many trees, the bees came in their billions. There were bees’ nests dripping in amber honey, which the wild boar, bears and wolves who dwelled here loved to forage and eat.
This time was after the dinosaurs and before our island became as we know it today.
The first travellers who came here were said by our legends to be the descendents of the Lost Tribe of Israel. Some say they were people fleeing from the Trojan wars. Whoever they were they had wandered for hundreds of years throughout northern and southern climes from their native lands. They called their new home
The Island of Honey
Because these travellers had traversed through many countries before making it to this island they had met many different peoples. There were tall people from the North and small people from the South.
When they came through the Southern Hemisphere they found tiny, little people, like the pigmies of today and they took them amongst them and brought them to the Island of Honey as their slaves.
Here on this island, the travellers found everything they dreamed of ; tinkling streams of crystal clear water; animals, nuts and berries they could eat. They had wood to build houses to protect themselves from the wolves and bears at night; precious metals to hammer and make tools; they were to discover, as they settled here, that this land was rich in everything they would ever need.
As is the way with power, the tall people wanted to be in charge in this new land. They wanted to keep the little people as their slaves to build their new homes and work the land. But the little people, who they had captured, were highly intelligent and wanted their own lives, not the lives of slaves.
In fact the small people were very much cleverer than the tall fair people and had magical ability; they could communicate with animals and could change into animals as and when they wished. They would morph from one animal to another and then back to little people in a flash, right in front of the tall people’s eyes. This made the tall people wary of them of them, but they still wanted them as slaves.
The wizards experimented on the little people to try and find out how they performed this magic, but it was a closely guarded secret which the small people would die rather than tell.
Anyway, they would tell tall people, you cannot do what we do because you are not one of us.
Then, in the depths of Winter, in the first year of the travellers making this island their home, the tall people woke one morning to find the little people had disappeared.
The tall men went out on horsback, trawling the land to find the little people, but nowhere could they be found. The tall people cursed, said they would be eaten by the bears and wolves and they did not stand a chance. But they were not as worried about them as mad because they had escaped and they no longer had slaves to use.
When you are on an island where the land is forested and food plentiful , but you are slaves and you want to escape, where do you go to hide?
When the people who stole you from your people and brought you to this land are very tall people and you are very small people, where do you go to hide?
When you are on an island where bears and wolves roam and you are a very tiny creature, where do you go to hide?
You are never going to guess so I think I may have to tell you the story of the little people of this island, our
Celtic Fairies
